DRSD Project

[panerai153]

I just can't stop making new projects for myself!. i have wanted a good 1665 for a daily wearer for a while now. After seeing the photos of Freddy's DRSD, the bug really bit me,hard! I put a WTB ad on the forum, and was offered this one at a really,really good price by a member who is totally into genuines now. From his description, it looks like most of the hard stuff has been done, but it is definitely a work in progress. Here is the description from the seller.

"This is an early MBW. It will take genuine Rolex parts without mods. The sales thread I purchased it from on repgeek is buried pretty deep

I had taken this project on about 17 months ago. I purchased the MBW from a member on repgeek. He had the crown/tube installed. Serviced the movement, and had the dial lumed.

I had a gen T-39 crystal installed ( 300 usd ) and had Marty from RWG drill the lug holes to fit gen springbars. I had attempted to sell this watch in the past with no luck. I had installed a gen bezel insert at the time, it was removed and sold. I no longer have the replica insert. The same with the bracelet and springbars."

So, here is what I've got. Watch head w/bezel, no insert, but everything else looks OK. I'm not sure about the crown guards.He didn't say whether or not anything had been done to them. From what i can see I'm going to need a genuine bezel insert w/ tritium pearl, genuine spring bars and a bracelet. I'm seeing inserts with pearls (Aged fat font) for around 350.00 -400.00 USD, don't know about genuine spring bars. What bracelet is appropriate for this one? seems like on my old MBW DRSD, I had a folded link bracelet.Would a 93150 be appropriate? What end links,580? Also at some time I probably will source a 2846 slow beat movement for it as well.As far as the crystal, I'm going to try to polish out most of the scratches unless they are too deep. I hate to ditch a genuine T-39 without and attempt at resurrection!

Any input advice parts source, etc. would be appreciated.If any members have a genuine aged insert /pearl lying around that they want to sell, same with springbars and bracelet.

At any rate, here are a few photos taken by the seller. Let me know what you think.

[Justasgood]

Camcel all memberships to forums like this one, poke out your eyes so as not to notice any other watches and enjoy your "new" watch.

[ubiquitous]

Looks like it's going to be a fun project, A! Good start

[alligoat]

Looks like you'll be hanging out at VRM looking for parts A! Inserts and old bracelets are always coming up- you just have to be ready to jump when you see a good deal. A 9315 folded link bracelet would be cool. 285 or 385 ends would be good, but 280 or 380's would also do. Later 93150's with 585 ends are also OK. Inserts are also always popping up, good luck.

My watchmaker has a machine that polishes plastic crystals- just pop the watch in and voila, you can see again!

[freddy333]

Congratulations on the new acquisition.

If memory serves, the MBW bezels do not readily accept gen inserts (at least, not the 2 I tried) without modification, which is why I ended up installing a gen insert & bezel. The best options for the MBW bezel are to install a PMWF insert & Ofrei illumines dot (pearl). As far as I can tell, these are the same parts that Rolex installs, currently, during servicing (if replacements are required).

If you are critical, I would highly encourage you to do some research on gen double-reds before you pick up a file or shell out any modding cash. There are many online sources for great info, but this is probably the easiest place to start.

[Nanuq]

All good advice here. Polish that crystal with some Softscrub and your thumb, and that looks like a gen crown/tube to me. Keep the photos coming!

[JoJo35]

Nanuq, polish the crystal? IT'S ALREADY PERFECT!

[panerai153]

Looks like you'll be hanging out at VRM looking for parts A! Inserts and old bracelets are always coming up- you just have to be ready to jump when you see a good deal. A 9315 folded link bracelet would be cool. 285 or 385 ends would be good, but 280 or 380's would also do. Later 93150's with 585 ends are also OK. Inserts are also always popping up, good luck.

My watchmaker has a machine that polishes plastic crystals- just pop the watch in and voila, you can see again!

Thanks for the info. I have been looking at VRM! I'm a little leery of Ebay, so many aftermarket parts out there. How difficult to get in touch with your watchmaker, may need a pro to get this one sparkling clear.

[JoJo35]

Hey Panerai153, no need to be sending that crystal to anyone. Here's a link to a thread I wrote about restoring a crystal, but IMO, I love the look of the GEN crystal you already have. If I were you, I would definitely leave it alone

[TeeJay]

Looking good, a fine acquisition indeed I've found 4-sided nail buffers and toothpaste good for buffing up crystals, and, even if you can't get the crystal back to 'factory perfection', I'd bet it'll retain enough scratches to make it look worn, used, and have plenty of character

[jmb]

Polish that crystal with some Softscrub...

This from the President of the "Throw it out in the driveway and run over it for a few days" vintagizing club?

[panerai153]

This from the President of the "Throw it out in the driveway and run over it for a few days" vintagizing club?

Amazing isn't it coming from the guy whose smallest "Micro" tool is an 8# sledge and a crowbar!!

[jmb]

Yeah, it's a mind bogglin' thing to be sure...

[Nanuq]

All right ya buncha meatheads. The man said he wanted to buff out some scratches, so AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGEMENT I gave him the old Softscrub trick.

Now if it was up to me, I'd give it a wee bit MORE character to the crystal, make it look like it's been there, and done that. Start with something like this:

[jmb]

Oooh, nice touch, that rasp!

[dieselpower]

Nice watch. One day maybe a great watch. Well done, good purchase. Don't you dare mess with that glass ..

[freddy333]

Now if it was up to me, I'd give it a wee bit MORE character to the crystal, make it look like it's been there, and done that. Start with something like this:

Wussies. So, you use a tongue cleaner to 'rough' up watch glass?

[Dizzy]

All right ya buncha meatheads. The man said he wanted to buff out some scratches, so AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGEMENT I gave him the old Softscrub trick.

Now if it was up to me, I'd give it a wee bit MORE character to the crystal, make it look like it's been there, and done that. Start with something like this:

A rasp hey? Thats a little extreme but I guess if you want that hardcore "tool watch" look you need to use some specialized tools such as this. Do you use that before or after you burn the watch for a half hour at 1500 degrees?

lol

[panerai153]

Well, I did a little experimenting with the crystal! took nanug's advice, went out to the barn, found and old horseshoer's rasp and went to work!! No, seriously, while I appreciate what some of you folks said about not touching the glass, this one has a little too much "wabi" for me. I don't mind few scratches, hell if you're going to play around with vintage watches with plexi crystals, you better get used to scratches. This one was just a little too much. After all if you can't see the dial, it's hard to tell the time. I was looking around in my shop, and remembered I had some Novus plastic scratch remover left from my old motorcycle riding days. This stuff works great to get scratches out of face shields and windscreens. I found bottles of #'s 1-3. #1 is a polish, #2 is for light scratches and #3 is for deep scratches. I started out with 3 and in about 45 minutes of rubbing, I got it looking pretty good. it still has a few scratches, but most came out.

Second step, rummage around in my watch box, and lo and behold right next to a couple of genuine GMT 16750 inserts was a Sub/SD insert. I'm pretty sure it isn't the correct one for this watch. I can't remember where this one came from, but i don't think it's genuine. It has a lumi pearl, so that's not proper for this watch, but I popped off the bezel, pressed in the insert (i would probably use a little glue if this was the one that was going to stay on the watch, but this was just for a few photos. I'm looking for and aged insert one that's between black and charcoal Grey, with a tritium pearl.

So here's the next step in my "work in progress" 1665.Please excuse the crappy pictures, I forgot how devilishly difficult it is to take good clear photos of a none AR'ed dome crystal.

[Nanuq]

Verrrrrry nice!

Don't be too fast to go with a faded insert. My 1665 is from 1971 and the dial has gone tropical but the (original) insert is still a deep rich black.

[Dizzy]

I love the look of a nice dinged up and gouged crystal thats been polisThed out. The distortion always looks great!

I agree with Nanuq, I prefer a nice black insert to a faded one. I usually refinish the insert to take the shine off, but i leave it black. I have a faded insert on my 5514 and i always get the urge to tear if off and replace it... but im trying to leave it as is.

dizz

[dieselpower]

OK, I accept that if the time was difficult to read then a little polishing is acceptable and I am pleased to see that you haven't gone over the top . But pleeeeeease do something about that datewheel. Did I read somewhere that someone had made a replacement flat top wheel? I'm not talking about the Ubi overlay, I mean a whole replacement datewheel in one piece but with flat top 3's. I would like a couple myself if they exist!

[panerai153]

OK, I accept that if the time was difficult to read then a little polishing is acceptable and I am pleased to see that you haven't gone over the top . But pleeeeeease do something about that datewheel. Did I read somewhere that someone had made a replacement flat top wheel? I'm not talking about the Ubi overlay, I mean a whole replacement datewheel in one piece but with flat top 3's. I would like a couple myself if they exist!

Diesel,

I totally agree with you. The DW is terrible. I believe that the more correct datewheels were available from ETZ at one time. i asked them about the DW's early last year and they told me that they had sold them all, and they weren't getting more unless they had orders for around 100 (I suppose that was the minimum order)

The PT 1680 that I have has a much nicer silver datewheel and a 2846 slow beat movement. What if you picked up one of those pretty cheap and cannabalized the movement and datewheel. I want to put a 2846 in this watch anyway. The only problem may be the datewheel alighment and size of the numbers. It looks like the date window on the sub is bigger than the SD. Is this a dirrection that might be persued?Also is the silver DW correct for the early SD's

[alligoat]

Silver DW w/ flattop 3's is most correct for a 1665 as well as a 1680. Seems like Slartiblast was doing some correct DW's also. Might check with him.

You can find old 2846-2's in some old Swiss watches- look around on ebay. But cannablizing a PT 1665 might be just as easy- you get the decent bracelet also, movement and DW. Dizzy was enlarging the date window on another PT product- 1680 as I recall- you might check that post. DW alignment on a PT 1665 sits slightly inside that of the MBW 1665.

Polishing job looks good A!